Non-channelling loader for refuse trucks



July 17, 1956 R. E. BROWN 2,754,988

NON-CHANNELLING LOADER FOR REFUSE TRUCKS Filed Aug. 24, 1953 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR floeri E. '13 rown ATTORNEY July 17, 1956 R. E. BROWN 2,754,988

NON-CHANNELL.ING LOADER FOR REFUSE TRUCKS Filed Aug. 24, 1953 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR f/oberi' .E ,Brown ATTORN EY July 17, 1956 R. E. BROWN 2,754,988

NON-CHANNELLING LOADER FOR REFUSE TRUCKS Filed Aug. 24, 1953 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR BY 144mm %TTORNEY Patented July 17, 1956 United States Patent Oflice NON-CHANNELLING LOADER FOR REFUSE TRUCKS Robert E. Brown, Hartsdale, N. Y., assignor to City Tank Corporation, Corona, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application August 24, 1953, Serial No. 376,043

3 Claims. (Cl. 214-519) This invention relates to loading devices and more particularly to loading devices for refuse trucks.

Known to me is the provision of automatic loaders which combine a chain lift mounted on a tail-gate for feeding refuse from a hopper at a low level through an opening in the truck body at a high level above the floor into a secondary hopper from which mechanism distributes the material in the secondary hopper therefrom and toward the opposite end of the truck body by cyclically repeated operation of a revoluble blade and swinging paddle. In this construction, the secondary hopper is of a width for eflicient lift and conforming to the same and is spaced inwardly from the side walls of the truck body, the blade and paddle discharging the refuse from the secondary hopper progressively against the pressure head of the accumulated refuse, gravitating from and projected from the secondary hopper.

This association of elements is highly inefficient in that the loading of the full capacity of the truck body is never accomplished. Channelling of the load along a path closely outlined by the dimensions in width of the packer assembly results, with considerable loss of compaction to each side of the path which is normal to the loading throat. This I attribute largely to the fact that the load immediately in front of the packer assembly is compacted within the secondary hopper and acts as a ram to preclude lateral distribution.

I have found that if the packer assembly exerts its feeding or distributing action in a substantially unconfined space, permitting lateral spreading of the gravitationally deposited load, that channelling is eliminated and a higher capacity pay load is attainable, so that increasing the motive power for the compacting force in operating the packing assembly, such as compacting blades or paddle elements, is not necessary. Furthermore, I have found and it is an object of my invention to provide in com- To attain these objects and such other objects as may appear herein or be hereinafter pointed out, reference is made to the accompanying drawing forming a part hereof, in WhlCh- Figure 1 is a side elevation of a truck and tailgate packer in accordance with my invention;

Figure 2 is a magnified longitudinal section thereof;

Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 2 along the drive coupling mechanism;

Figure 4 is a diagrammatic plan view along the line 44 of Figure 1.

Making reference to the drawing, I illustrate my invention in connection with a refuse truck 10 in which the truck chassis 11 has a truck body 12, suitably mounted thereon for tiltable dumping of the load. The truck body 12 has a tailgate assembly 13 hinged thereto by the hinge 14.

The tailgate assembly includes a casing 15 having a loading hopper 16 below the floor level 17. The casing 15 includes chain lift 18, guided on the shafts 19 and 21) for guiding sprockets 21 and 22. The casing has a guide wall 23 along which the load is lifted, leading to a discharge opening 24 gravitationally depositing the load on the truck floor 17 passed a deflector 25. The guide wall 23 extends above the discharge opening 24 adjacent the head shaft 20 by the extension 26 which is formed with an apron 27. The apron 27 envelopes the packer assembly mechanism 28 and includes side brackets 29 having bearings through which the rotary shaft 30 extends.

Mounted upon the shaft 39 are the reinforced side arms 31 in the form of solid forgings or castings, supporting cross members 32 having rounded noses 33. Over the cross members and enveloping the shaft 30 in flush outline are cover plates 34, 35 to provide a hollow revoluble blade or scoop Mia.

Mounted upon the apron 27 between the brackets 29, from the supporting shaft 36, there is pivotally mounted the swinging packer paddle 37, terminating at its lower end 38 in a roller 39 for contacting the surfaces of the cover plates 34 and 35, previously described.

The packer paddle 37 is formed with cars 40 engaged by the spring guide stud 41, projecting through the guide bracket 42. An expansion spring 43 is sleeved over the stud 41 and is loaded by the expansive force against the plate 44, engaging the end 45 of the stud. It will be understood that by the use of the expansion spring 43 acting on the stud 41, the packer paddle 37 is maintained bination with a lift loading mechanism, a cyclically re- 7 produced packer assembly of revoluble blade and swinging paddle which acts upon a gravitationally deposited load within the truck body, characterized by sweeping and packing the gravitationally deposited load from the natural angle of repose without substantially any confining influence other than the walls of the truck, to leave a spread of the load as it is swept and compacted from the pile and forwardly away from the zone of deposition, whereby channelling to a width less the width of the truck body in compaction is minimized, if not wholly eliminated.

Still more particularly, it is an object of this invention to provide in combination with a lift for loading a truck above the floor level, a cyclically operated revoluble blade and swinging paddle compactor, the blade and paddle being supported spaced from the side walls of the truck body, with a pressure head free from any lateral confining influence whereby the load or refuse which is scooped by said blade may be compacted substantially for the full width of the truck body to its side Walls Without evidence of channelling to a lesser width.

in contact with the rotor assembly 30.

With the mechanism as provided, a drive therefor is obtained by the power take-off unit 46 which by worm and Wheel connection drives the oil pump 47. The power takeoff unit may be placed into and out of gear by the control link 48 and the manual control lever 49. The pump 47 feeds oil under pressure through the lines St) to and from the hydraulic motor 51, flexible connection being secured through the hinge coupling 14 in a manner which will be readily understood.

The hydraulic motor through the worm 52 drives the worm gear 53, in turn driving the power shaft 54. On the power shaft is the sprocket 55, with reduction gears 56 mounted on the shaft 56a, and chain 57 for driving the sprocket 58 to which the shaft 30 is keyed. On the shaft 56a is mounted a sprocket 59 which is coupled to the chain 60, drawn over the head shaft sprocket 61 for driving the lift assembly. A control valve 62 under the operation of the pull rod 63 may place the hydraulic motor 51 into and out of operation when the pump 47 has been put into operation.

In use, with the lift 18 in operating condition, refuse deposited in the hopper 16 will be lifted along the wall 23, to be deposited into the opening 24 gravitationally, landing on the floor 17 in a normal pile P, having an angle of repose generally pyramidal in outline and extending between the rotor blade 31 and the deflector plate and gradually spreading laterally to the side walls. Any irregularly formed pieces not entering the discharge opening will be broken against the breaker edges 64, 64, to be deposited upon the apron 27, to gravitationally fall over these edges. Portions of the load falling in the pile P will be cyclically swept toward the front end ,of the truck, to each side of the bracket plates 29 and the forward edge 29a, at which point the swinging paddle plate 37 is positioned in the most inwardly retracted point of swing.

The most forward movement of the paddle plate 37 is shown in dotted line under the influence of the eccentric action of the paddle a. Refuse progressively accumulating over the floor will be moved forwardly and in the absence of any confining influence of the bracket 29, will likewise move laterally in a manner more clearly illus trated diagrammatically in Figure 4, as shown by the flow lines F, the limit of movement being the side walls SW before the compacted load gradually moves forward in the truck body.

Substantially uniform compaction for the full width of the truck body between the side walls is obtainable and evidence of channelling of the width substantially equivalent to the distance between the brackets 29, 29 is absent to thereby make it possible to obtain a full pay load. The fact that the revoluble blade and paddle occupy less than the total width between the walls SW and in most instances even with a relative width of the blade and paddle being from one third to two thirds of the width of the side walls of the truck body, does not detract from full width compaction before stalling of the motive power is noted.

By the assembly described, increased pay loads are secured, without increase in the power units required, with no evidence of gaps or uncompacted loads.

Having thus described my invention and illustrated its use, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a refuse truck, a truck body having a rearwardly and angularly extended tailgate wall, a tailgate loader along said tailgate wall, comprising a lift extending below the truck body fioor and guided adjacent the tailgate wall towards the roof of the truck body, the combination having a fill opening less than the width of the truck in said tailgate wall positioned above the floor lever over which opening the lift directs the load directly to deposit the load in a deposition zone in a gravitational angle of repose on the floor of said truck body free to spread laterally and longitudinally of the truck, a horizontally revoluble distributing blade extending fully across said opening, the axis of which blade is positioned substantially in parallelism with the tailgate wall and supported in spaced relation to said side walls above the fioor of said truck body and cyclically extended into said zone to compact and distribute the load forwardly and toward the side walls of the truck body and progressively to fill the load into the void space and compact the same substantially uniformly for the full width of the truck body.

2. In a refuse truck, a truck body having a rearwardly and angularly extended tailgate wall, a tailgate loader along said tailgate wall, a lift extending below the truck body floor and guided adjacent the roof the truck body, the combination having a fill opening in said tailgate above the fioor level and spaced from the side walls of the truck body over which opening the lift directs the load to deposit the load gravitationally in a deposition zone in a gravitational angle of repose directly on the floor of said truck body and to extend beneath the tailgate wall, a horizontally revoluble distributing blade extending fully across said opening, the axis of which blade is positioned substantially in parallelism with the tailgate wall and supported in spaced relation to said side walls above the floor of said truck body and cyclically extended into said zone to compact and distribute the load forwardly and toward the side walls of the truck body and progressively to fill the load into the void space and compact the same substantially uniformly for the full width of the truck body.

3. In a refuse truck, a truck body having a rearwardly and angularly extended tailgate wall, a tailgate loader along said tailgate wall, comprising a lift extending below the truck body floor and guided adjacent the tailgate wall towards the roof of the truck body, the combination having a fill opening less than the width of the truck in said tailgate wall positioned above the fioor level, over which opening the lift directs the load directly to deposit the load in a deposition zone in a gravitational angle of repose on the floor of said truck body free to spread laterally and longitudinally of the truck, a horizontally revoluble distributing blade extending across said opening supported in spaced relation to said side walls above the fioor of said truck body and cyclically extended into said zone to compact and distribute the load forwardly and toward the side walls of the truck body and progressively to fill the load into the void space and compact the same substantially uniformly for the full width of the truck body, a spring biased packer paddle which is eccentrically driven in timed relation to said blade and includes a shield apron extending over said blade and paddle toward the top of the said truck body and operating in spaced relation to said side walls also to deposit a portion of the load in front of the paddle.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,252,608 Ballert Aug. 12, 1941 2,496,192 Baldt Jan. 31, 1950 2,660,326 Calamore Nov. 24, 1953 

